SEAFORD, N. Y. — ( AP ) — They zip around the rink, armed with helmets, pads and mouthguards. As they squat for placement on the wood floor, they push, nudge, and sometimes crash out.
The Long Island Roller Rebels ‘ biggest challenge, however, is between the women outside the suburban strip-maze ball arena, where they are gearing up for the upcoming ball derby period.
The roughly 20-year-old amateur group is suing a region leader for an executive order that prohibits teams with trans players from playing in county-run parks and fields. The New York Civil Liberties Union-backed legal action from the league has inserted itself into the conversation about the right of trans players.
Amanda Urena, the team’s vice president, said there was never any problem the party may take a walk.
” The entire point of derby has been to be this thing where people feel welcome”, said the 32- year- ancient Long Island indigenous, who competes as” Wavy Pan” and identifies as gay, at a new practice at United Skates of America in Seaford. We want trans women to know that we want them to play with us, and that we will make every effort to maintain fighting and ensuring that this is a secure environment for them to enjoy.
More than 100 people services in the state of almost 1.4 million located south of Queens are affected by the February proclamation from Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman.
Transgender women and girls ‘ sports leagues and clubs that want to play or practice in county-run gardens may make a disclosure about their policies. Any organization that allows them to perform will been denied a force, though men’s teams and clubs are n’t affected.
As part of an blast of anti-trans legislation on many topics in recent years, bills restricting transgender students ‘ ability to participate in sports have now passed in some 24 state. Following a ballot on the school board last year, one of Manhattan’s largest school districts is now considering a ban.
The Roller Rebels, who have previously held games and practices on county-owned rinks, applied for a state force this fortnight. Since the business is accessible to anyone who identifies as a female and has one trans player already on the roster, they do not want to be denied.
The group, which has two groups and about 25 players, did struggle to recruit as a result of the ban, Urena said, and it will also struggle to sponsor competitions with different leagues.
Blakeman has requested that the state retract the ban, calling it against state anti-discrimination laws, while state attorney general Letitia James has requested that the county rescind it.
It is n’t surprising that a roller derby league has become the target of opposition because, according to Margot Atwell, who played in a women’s league in New York City and wrote the roller derby book” Derby Life” about the game, the sport has long been a haven for queer and transgender women.
Two teams compete on a trail as their designated “jammer” attempts to score points by lapping the various athletes, who are allowed to use their shoulders, chest, and arms. The game, which dates at least to the 1930s and was popular in the 1970s, was popular in the 1970s.
The most recent revival, which started in the early 2000s and has been supported by LGBTQ+ people, is frequented by leagues that take part in Pride parades and play fundraising games, according to Atwell.
” You come in here and you say,’ I’m a trans woman. I’m a nonbinary person. I’m genderqueer.’ OK? We accept you”, said Caitlin Carroll, a Roller Rebel who competes as” Catastrophic Danger”. ” The world is scary enough. You ought to be in a secure environment.
Blakeman has stated that he wants to ensure that female athletes can compete safely and fairly. He and Caitlyn Jenner, who won Olympic gold in the men’s decathlon in 1976 and later underwent a gender transition, held a press conference last week. Jenner, a Republican who’s frequently at political odds with the greater transgender community, has endorsed the ban.
Blakeman, a Republican who was elected in 2021, has said constituents asked his office to act. However, many critics view the ban as political posturing, noting that he has acknowledged there have n’t been any local complaints involving transgender players on women’s teams.
” This is a solution in search of a problem”, said Emily Santosus, a 48- year old transgender woman on Long Island who hopes to join a women’s softball team. ” We’re not bullies. We’re the ones that get bullied”.
The ones who will suffer most are n’t elite athletes, but children still trying to navigate their gender identities, added Grace McKenzie, a transgender woman who plays for the New York Rugby Club’s women’s team.
The 30-year-old Brooklyn resident said,” Cruel is the only word that I can use to describe it.” ” Kids are using sports at that age to build relationships, make friendships, develop teamwork skills, leadership skills and, frankly, just help shield them from all the hate they face as transgender kids already”.
Each side makes reference to limited research in the larger discussion about trans women in sports to back up their contentions. And bans frequently fail to distinguish between girls and women who used puberty blockers as part of their transition, which stunted the development of a male-typical physique, and those who did n’t, as one New York advocate pointed out.
According to Juli Grey- Owens, leader of Gender Equality New York, the order in Nassau County puts some younger trans girls at greater risk by potentially pitting them against boys.
” They are not hitting puberty, so they’re not growing, they’re not getting that body strength, the endurance, the agility, the big feet, the large legs”, Grey- Owens said.
According to Shane Diamond, a transgender man who plays recreational LGBTQ+ ice hockey in New York City, the ban could even result in cisgender female athletes who are strong and muscular being falsely labeled transgender and disqualified, as has happened elsewhere.
Any young woman who does n’t fit the stereotypical definition of femininity and womanhood is at risk of being interrogated or subjected to gender police, according to Diamond.
According to a poll conducted by the Washington Post-University of Maryland in 2022, 55 % of Americans opposed allowing trans women and girls to compete against other women and girls in high school sports, and 58 % opposed it for college and professional sports.
According to two cisgender female athletes, according to Jenner, men are stronger than women, so it will never be fair if transgender athletes are permitted to compete.
” There is a chance I would get hurt in those situations”, said Trinity Reed, 21, who plays lacrosse at Nassau County’s Hofstra University.
Mia Babino, 18, plays field hockey at the State University of New York at Cortland and plans to transfer to Nassau County’s Molloy University.
She said,” We’ve worked very hard to get where we are and play at the college level.”
But that attitude goes against everything that athletic competition is about, and it sells women and their potential short, according to Urena of the Roller Rebels.
” If people gave up playing sports because they thought they were going to lose, we would n’t have a sports industry”, they said. ” I enjoy playing against people who are faster and stronger because that’s how I improve.”
___
Follow Philip Marcelo at twitter.com/philmarcelo.
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
